Poor little thing. Having to see that man once but now a second time? Unfair.
Mia curled her hands into fists to keep from punching her computer screen to erase the snarling man’s face. But what good would that do?
She pressed the internet shortcut on the keyboard and sat back to wait for the slower dial-up service to open the home page. She stared over the top of the screen and touch-typed Lincoln Pope in the search box then stretched a kink from her neck.
“Mia, did you hear me?” Russ asked from the other side of the island where he and Ryan had been discussing this new development.
She looked up. “Sorry, I was typing Pope’s name into a search box.”
“I just had dispatch run his name. He’s clear. No record. No priors at all.”
“But he killed Fuzzy.”
“No, he allegedly killed Springer,” Russ said. “We know he wasn’t murdered in the barn and we only have proof that he set the fire. Big difference. I need to get back to the office to direct an all-out search for the guy.” Russ pulled a business card from his uniform shirt. “Here’s my email address. Send that picture to me. Sooner rather than later.”
“Don’t worry,” Mia said. “I’ll send it right now.”
Russ left, and she turned back to the computer where the search she’d started on Lincoln Pope remained on the screen. “What on earth?”
“What is it?” Ryan asked.
She pointed at the screen where35nc63n *6*eappeared instead of his name. “I typedLincoln Popein the search engine, and this is what came up.”
“That’s odd. Maybe you were distracted and mistyped.”
“I wasn’t looking at the keys or screen so I’ll do it again.” She studied the keyboard and tapped the right keys for Lincoln Pope.
“Same thing,” Ryan said.
She typed different words. “Left-hand keys work fine. Right is screwed up.”
Ryan shook his head. “Looks like you’re typing in Morse code.”
“Morse code?” She peered at the keyboard, then at the text message on the counter. She shot to her feet and ran to the door.
“Russ,” she shouted, halting him as he climbed into his car. “Come back. Now. Hurry! I know who killed Fuzzy.”
* * *
Ryan studied the keyboard. What on earth had Mia discovered? He just didn’t see anything odd. Nothing at all. His comment about Morse code sparked a fire in her, so it had to be related to a code of some sort, but what?
“C’mon.” Mia charged through the front door with Russ and rushed to the computer while he followed. “You’re probably familiar with Num Lock on a full-sized keyboard, right?”
Russ rolled his eyes. “I might not be a computer guru, but yeah, I know when it’s pushed, the keys on the side of the keyboard work as numbers. If not, they don’t.”
“Right, but it’s different on laptop keyboards without number pads.” She pointed at the right side of the keyboard. “See how these letters have small numbers on the keys? If you look at the arrangement, it looks just like the number pad on a full-sized keyboard. When Num Lock is activated on a laptop, these letters form a number keypad, and the computer sees them as numbers.”
“So.” Russ continued to eye her.
“When Jessie spotted Pope’s picture, she tried to push the computer away. But the rubber feet kept it from moving. She got frustrated and pounded on the keys. She must’ve accidentally turned on Num Lock.” Mia slid the paper with the text message toward Russ. “I’ll type the code with Num Lock turned off.”
She entered, 2533 *5. 36605s and spelled outKill PI. Loomis. She craned her neck to face Russ.
He straightened up. “Kurt Loomis?”
“Yeah,” Mia replied. “My brother’s partner ordered a hit on Fuzzy.”
“Why would Loomis tell Pope to kill Fuzzy?” Ryan asked, catching Mia’s excitement.
